Jan 8 Lemongrass Ginger Roasted Carrot Soup

After all the feasts, cookies, and cakes during the holiday time, January is generally a detox and cleansing period for many people. When some go for smoothies and teas, I thought why not share a recipe of something warm and comforting for a change? So here it is, a soup with lemongrass & ginger (two of my favorite ingredients) base and added with roasted carrots. If you really want the soup to fill you up, then just add some cooked quinoa. That's it! Have detoxing!

What you’ll need:

500 g carrots, cleaned, peeled and cut into 2 cm pieces

1 lemongrass, cut into 2 cm pieces

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

450 ml vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup cooked quinoa (cook the quinoa based on the package instructions)

small handful of roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

a few coriander leaves, to garnish

How it’s made:

Heat the oven to 180 °C.

Put the carrots in baking dish. Drizzle the olive oil over and a sprinkle of salt. Toss the carrots until the oil and salt are is coated. Place the baking dish in the oven and roast the carrots for one hour.

When there are 30 mins of the roasting time left, add the vegetable stock, lemongrass and ginger into a heavy saucepan and bring it to boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover.

Once the carrots are done, take the baking dish out of the oven. Set aside. Pick out the lemongrass pieces from the soup. And add the carrots into the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup again to boil and reduce to medium low, simmer for another 30-40 mins until the carrots are very soft.

Use a hand blender to blend soup into puree. Divide the soup among the serving bowls. Add 2 tbsp of quinoa, a few coriander leaves and roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts. And Serve.